Mighty nice of him. The Mets have kept Tejada in their thoughts since he had his leg broken in an illegal slide by Dodgers' Chase Utley in the NLDS. Wilmer Flores, who took over at shortstop, called him after the Mets beat the Dodgers.

"We couldn't do it in a better moment," Flores said that night. "This is for him. We have to get him two more."

"It's been a long time since the Mets have gotten this far," Tejada said in a statement Thursday. "It's been a joy to watch my teammates sweep and I wanted to congratulate them with engraved bottles of Johnnie Walker Blue Label. We do have some work cut out for us, but today we're going to enjoy this moment as a team since we worked so hard to get here."

The "Win It For Ruben" campaign rolls on. The Mets will play Game 1 of the World Series on Tuesday in Kansas City or Toronto.

Tejada was trying to turn a double play when Utley slid out of the basepath and upended Tejada, who suffered a fractured right fibula.